Mark Martin is widely considered to be the best NASCAR driver to never win a Cup championship. The Hall of Famer, who finished second in the Cup Series standings five times, recently posted on his X handle that running in 25th place is harder than running in the top 10. While not every section of the fandom agrees with this take, his words are backed by strong reason and example.
Advertisement
The biggest challenge that comes with racing in the midpack is navigation. Drivers not only have to find a way through the crowd but also keep away from trouble in doing so. The slightest contact on either side of them could create huge chaos and foil the days of many. Furthermore, they could also fall prey to the mistakes of the drivers leading in front of them.
Most people have no idea how hard it is to run 25th in a @NASCAR cup race. It’s actually harder than running in the top 10. Sounds crazy but it’s true.
— Mark Martin (@markmartin) July 14, 2024
The most recent example where this occurred was at Pocono last Sunday. 2X Cup Series champion Kyle Busch was lined up in 16th place during a restart with 40 laps remaining in the 160-lap race. He was trying to block Spire Motorsports driver Corey LaJoie down the front stretch as other contenders widened out to other lanes.
The two made contact during this sequence and LaJoie veered right to clip Busch. Busch slid to the bottom of the track off Turn 1 before spinning back into the crowd. He pushed Ryan Preece into Harrison Burton and thrashed sideways into Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the process. The accident left the former champion with his fifth DNF of the season and proved Martin’s point.
Is midpack racing as intense as racing for the win?
The incident left not only Busch out of contention to finish the race but also those he collected. Only LaJoie was able to carry on with his race after being involved in it directly and finished in 19th place. Such drama has led Martin to believe that TV should focus more on the racing that goes on in the back of the field and not just at the front.
Reacting to a follower who said that the race for 31st place is as important as the race for 1st place, Martin wrote, “I think many fans would agree.”
The Busch-LaJoie tangle was but one case. Almost every Cup Series race holds a lot of intensity in its midpack where drivers face so much more risk for a lot less reward.
